UNDP continues to expand stabilization support for Iraqi Government to help families return home, including minority communities

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) continues to support the Government of Iraq on stabilization projects to restore vital services in areas freed from ISIL.

More than 1,200 projects are underway through the UNDP-managed Funding Facility for Stabilization, based on priorities set by Iraqi authorities.

These include rehabilitating water, sewerage and electricity grids in 23 liberated towns and districts in Anbar, Ninewah and Salah al-Din governorates.

Bridges, schools, health centres, pharmacies, hospitals, universities and administrative buildings are being repaired and thousands of people are employed on work crews, removing rubble and transporting debris.

Destitute families, including households headed by women, are benefiting from cash grants and thousands of homes are being rebuilt in destroyed neighbourhoods. More than 95% of all stabilization work is contracted through the local private sector.

Stabilizing liberated areas remains one of the highest priorities in Iraq, with a total 5.4 million Iraqis forced to flee their homes after three years of conflict. More than 2.3 million people have returned to live in the 23 areas in which the facility is engaged.

Stabilization projects include:

Mosul – more than 360 projects completed or underway, employing 10,000 people and providing desperately needed income for their families. Projects include:

rehabilitating priority facilities in the University of Mosul;

repairing the vital road to al-Athbah Hospital;

repairing the Al Qusor, Al Zuhur and Al Sahiron Water Treatment Plants to provide safe water to approximately 472,000 people in East Mosul;

repairing the Al Ayman, Danedan and Al Jadeed Water Treatment Plants to provide safe water to approximately one million people in West Mosul.

repairing Anbar University, which was heavily damaged by ISIL. Stabilization work will enable more than 18,000 young women and men to return to the university.

Ninewah Plains and Sinjar – more than 270 projects are completed or underway, which will benefit mostly minority communities such as Christian and Yezidi families, including 55 projects in Yezidi towns. In Christian areas, 31 projects have been completed as of 19 October, including:

rehabilitation of 20 schools in Nimrud;

water, health and electricity projects in Hamdaniyah;

health and water projects in Karamless and Telkayf.

Within two months 88 more projects will be completed, and within six months another 42. This work will cover repair of thousands of homes and several dozen schools, 18 water and 15 electricity projects, cash grants for families to restock animals and assets, and cash-for-work projects, including:

In northern Ninewah Plains, repairing and resupplying health centres in Batnaya, Telesqof and Al Qosh, schools and shops in Batnaya and Telesqof, water networks in Batnaya and the power sub-station in Telesqof;

repairing wells and more than 20 schools in western Ninewah;

improving power supply in Sinjar and Sinuni, rehabilitating schools and the hospital in Sinuni, and planning a complete overhaul of Sinjar’s water network.